Ambrosia

In Greek mythology, ambrosia was a honey-flavored food eaten by the gods
that allowed them to remain
immortal.
With the ambrosia, they often drank a honey-flavored drink called nectar.
According to legend, each day doves brought ambrosia to Zeus, the king of
the gods, to distribute among the other
deities.

immortal
able to live forever

deity
god or goddess

Humans who ate ambrosia grew faster, stronger, and more beautiful, all
qualities that were considered divine. Eating ambrosia also made humans
immortal. In one Greek myth, a son of Zeus named Tantalus was punished for
crimes that included stealing ambrosia from heaven and giving it to
humans.

anoint
to bless by applying oil or some other substance

The gods used ambrosia in another way, applying it to their bodies and
hair. The ancient Greeks gave the name to an oil used for
anointing
corpses, which they believed kept the bodies from decaying. In Homer's
Iliad
*
,
the god Apollo* anoints the body of the dead Trojan hero Sarpedon with
ambrosia before handing it over for burial.